The cost of the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran are mounting in terms of civilian deaths and damage to Iran’s most famous cultural heritage sites.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran are damaging historical and religious sites. Now, these strikes have killed more than 2,000 people in Iran, over half of them civilians. That’s according to the US-based advocacy group Human Rights Activist News Agency. And now, as NPR’s Emily Feng reports, Iran’s cultural heritage is also caught up in the conflict.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: There’s an old saying in Persian about a particular square in a city of Isfahan.
KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH: The sort of nickname for it is nesf-e-jahan (ph), which means half the world. So what they meant by that, that if you saw nesf-e-jahan, you had seen half the world already.
FENG: This is Dr. Katayoun Shahandeh. She’s a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, or SOAS, in London.
SHAHANDEH: So that was how fabulous nesf-e-jahan was supposed to be, is that having seen nesf-e-jahan, you’ve seen half the world.
FENG: She’s Iranian herself, and she’s studied Isfahan’s treasures for decades – its stunning blue and turquoise tiling, arched Islamic architecture – much of it crafted by Persian and Armenian artists during the Safavid dynasty, a golden era of Persian Empire.
SHAHANDEH: Iran, the Persian Empire and the Ottomans – and they were the two in the region who were vying with each other. I mean, in terms of architecturally, it is probably one of the most important sites in the Islamic era.
FENG: UNESCO, the U.N. body that protects scientific and cultural sites, has documented at least four historic sites damaged by U.S. and Israeli bombing near the sites in Iran. Three of them are in Isfahan – the Safavid-era Jama Mosque, in the Naqsh e-Jahan, Ali Qapu Palace, and Chehel Sotoun Palace.
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FENG: This video, shared by Iran’s cultural ministry, shows damage to Chehel Sotoun from a strike on government offices nearby on March 10. Glass and masonry crackle underfoot, having fallen from the walls and the intricate mosaics above. Israel’s military told NPR it was targeting offices of Iran’s IRGC, the regime’s multi-branch security forces nearby. The U.S. did not return an NPR request for comment. Also damaged by a nearby strike is Tehran’s Gholstan palace.
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LAZARE ELOUNDOU ASSOMO: We have, for example, the Goleston Palace. You know, we sometimes even compare it with the Versailles Palace in France.
FENG: This is the director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Center, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, speaking earlier last week. He said UNESCO had identified more heritage sites. it wants to be protected in Iran from future strikes.
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ASSOMO: We have communicated all the geographical coordinates to all the parties so that everyone is aware and that this World Heritage Site should not be subject to any attack.
FENG: Under international law, all countries must distinguish between military and civilian sites and minimize damage to cultural sites. But that line has become increasingly blurred in this latest conflict.
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PETE HEGSETH: No stupid rules of engagement, no nationbuilding quagmire, no democracy-building exercise.
FENG: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this month the military would loosen restrictions on how U.S. forces wage war.
PATTY GERSTENBLITH: Rules by which the U.S. military conducts an armed conflict.
FENG: This is Patty Gerstenblith, an emerita professor of law at Chicago’s DePaul University. She is also the president of the U.S. Committee of Blue Shield International, which works to protect cultural heritage during times of war. In the past, rules of engagement helped distinguish cultural sites from military ones. And in the past…
GERSTENBLITH: For example, in Syria and Iraq, following or as part of the conflict, archaeological sites were looted on a large scale. A lot of that was documented through satellite imagery.
FENG: But now, this time, satellite imagery of Iran from companies like Planet Labs and Vantor are being blocked or embargoed for days before being released publicly, which Gerstenblith says makes it nearly impossible to monitor Iranian sites in real time. How to make sense of the damage to Iran’s cultural legacy is dividing Iranians. Shahandeh at SOAS in London says…
SHAHANDEH: You know, at the same time, this anger and rage that – why should buildings matter more to the world than the lives of all these children, all these people.
FENG: But she says in reality, the tragedy is doublefold.
SHAHANDEH: The Iranian people and our heritage and our culture.
FENG: Everything, she says, is caught in this crossfire. Emily Feng, NPR News.
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